Little Child
by WistfulSin
Summary: Two shot/song fic. Hiei is with Kin, waiting for Shinpi to return from disappearing again, during a storm. Song is Lullaby for a Stormy Night.
1. Chapter 1

So! It's been a while, eh? Indeed it has. I apologize, but I am working on then next chapters as you read this. Full time work + laziness + severe social distractions have left me brain dead, writer's blocked, and confused as to my level of skill and whether or not I should keep going in the first place. Alas! I have overcome being a whiny bitch and am on my way back to the top! So, for your patience and to prove I'm not a zombie, I offer this one shot. The song was actually suggested by my pal Shiningheart of Thunderclan and it's also used in the new chapter of TBofC. It's Lullaby for a Stormy night by Vienna Teng.

For any questions that may be asked, this is actually set in the future. As I've already decided to pen a third (and possibly final) installment to the story of IchixHiei, this will take place during that time. Without further ado, enjoy.

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><p><em>Little child, be not afraid<em>

_Though rain pounds harshly against the glass_

_Like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger_

_I am here tonight_

Kin sat staring out the window in the living room as the storm roared around the house. Moments before there had been nothing to warn of the apparent monsoon, it just fell upon them. So he waited for his sister to walk through wall of rain and grin at him.

A warm hand fell on his shoulder, gripping slightly.

"This one isn't for us, Kin." Hiei's deep voice made the boy look up with wide, hopeful blue eyes.

"But it's just wind and rain. There hasn't even been any lig-" a bright flash of light lit up the darkened sky. His hope fell quickly.

_Little child, be not afraid__  
><em>_Though thunder explodes and lightning flash__  
><em>_Illuminates your tear-stained face__  
><em>_I am here tonight__  
><em>

Hiei had made sure the house's windows were closed but didn't bother to tape them. Even though he made fun the ramshackle house, Shinpi had fixed it up quite a bit. It wasn't as weak as it used to be and he wasn't worried about it withstanding this storm.

Months had passes without a word from his okami. The Spirit Defense Force could not get so much as a hint about her in their search. Where ever she was, whatever she was doing, she did not want anyone else to know or be involved in it.

Not him. Not Kin.

"Do you think she's okay?"

Hiei imagined the red haired woman sitting the rain, asleep next to her wolf as he'd seen her once in her home. "She's fine, Kin. She's a soldier."

"I miss her." The boy turned back to the rain splattered windows and stared. "I want her to come home."

_And someday you'll know__  
><em>_That nature is so__  
><em>_The same rain that draws you near me__  
><em>_Falls on rivers and land__  
><em>_On forests and sand__  
><em>_Makes the beautiful world that you'll see__  
><em>_In the morning_

The power went out and Kin shivered a little. Hiei slid onto the couch beside the boy and looked out the glass as well.

"It's a bad storm." Another clap of thunder shook the house and the boy frowned, the lightening had flashed so close he jumped back and fell into Hiei. The fire demon's scent, his mere presence calmed the young wind demon. He turned and buried his face in the man's stomach as his eyes watered.

"I just want her to be okay."

Hiei smoothed Kin's hair silently, then laid an arm across his shoulders to keep him closer.

"When you get older you'll understand," the fire demon muttered. "That you don't have to want some things for certain people. They just make it happen."

"What?"

"It's like saying you want the grass to be greener after the rain. It just happens, you don't need to waste time hoping for it."

Blue eyes stared up widely at Hiei's calm face and Kin's first tear spilled over.

"But I'm scared. What if she doesn't come back again?"

_Little child, be not afraid__  
><em>_Though storm clouds mask your beloved moon__  
><em>_And its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams__  
><em>_I am here tonight_

Hiei didn't answer. "I have nightmares sometimes, about the time she left to fight Hiro. What is this is like then? What if she's fighting someone she can't beat?"

"Hn. Stop worrying." Hiei looked down with a crimson eye.

He had reasons for not explaining to the boy that he had seen his share of nightmares starring the okami. There was no need to spread the doubt. Shinpi was strong, and withstanding. They'd see her again. For her sake she'd better be stronger than ever too, because he was going to cripple her.

"You need to sleep. We have to train tomorrow." Kin stared out the window over the back of the couch, his ear pressed to Hiei's stomach as the fire demon's natural heat kept him warm.

"I can't sleep when it rains so hard." He murmured, despite how exhausted he was from the rigorous training he was under.

_Little child, be not afraid__  
><em>_Though wind makes creatures of our trees__  
><em>_And their branches to hands, they're not real, understand__  
><em>_And I am here tonight__  
><em>

The wind kicked up and howled, making blue eyes grow wide. The trees in the backyard swayed and lit up under the quick brightening of the sky. He pulled harder into Hiei, who smoothed his hand over his back.

How they'd gotten to this point was beyond the fire demon. He had to admit, it was a shock to him. He'd never found himself to be the nurturing kind. No one else had either. In fact, when Shinpi had left she'd left specific instructions through Kuwabara that Kurama should look after and train Kin.

Some sense of pride, maybe ownership, had forced Hiei's hand in the matter. He refused to let his friend take the boy. Kin wasn't receptive at first. Not to the training and not to the man who had left him and his sister so many months before. He'd used the word abandoned at one point. During some transition the man hadn't seen coming, the boy grew on him.

_For you know, once even I was a__  
><em>_Little child, and I was afraid__  
><em>_But a gentle someone always came__  
><em>_to dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears__  
><em>_And to give a kiss goodnight__  
><em>

The boy's chest began to rise and fall evenly and Hiei felt his arms loosen. Kin was fast asleep on his stomach, but the fire demon didn't move him. He pulled the green striped blanket from the back of the couch over them both and settled in for the night.

When he'd been young, he'd been taken in but never really cared for. It wasn't until he'd met Kurama and the Detective that he'd had anyone worry about his well being or offer genuine friendship. He had never had a real parent in his life, and ever since he'd met the baka onna, he'd worried that his lack of observation would cripple him. But Kin was as natural to him as the sword. He was awkward about the boy, sure, and there were moments he wished to rip his own hair out or shake the teeth from the kid's head, but there was a challenging peace about all the chaos.

He may not have expected, or even at first wanted, to care about the boy but at the moment all they had was each other. He was beginning to understand Shinpi's view on parenthood.

_Well now I am grown__  
><em>_And these years have shown__  
><em>_That rain's a part of how life goes__  
><em>_But it's dark and it's late__  
><em>_So I'll hold you and wait__  
><em>_'til your frightened eyes do close__  
><em>

"I miss you," like his older sister the dark haired boy spoke in his sleep sometimes. Hiei tightened his hold on the child, and closed his own eyes.

"I miss her too." He whispered to the silent house. He began to listen to the rain falling heavily and imagined his okami dancing in it. Then the thought changed to her laying in her grassy field while it rained a summer storm, in her white fighting uniform with that lazy lopsided smile. The thought began to slip into a dream.

Him and Kin were with her, sitting in the sun. He was complaining about the rain, despite it being warm, and the boy was laughing trying to make spheres of the falling droplets.

_And I hope that you'll know...__  
><em>

Kin stiffened and relaxed, rubbing his face against the man's clothes in his sleep. Hiei's warm arm loosened hold on the boy's shoulders.

"Mhfra scared." Kin muttered in his sleep.

"Don't be stupid." Hiei muttered back. "Like I'd let anything happen to you."

_Everything's fine in the morning__  
><em>_The rain'll be gone in the morning__  
><em>_But I'll still be here in the morning._


	2. Chapter 2

Part two, as suggested by Shiningheart. She's been my inspiration as of late. Plus, I did owe her a good story as I missed her birthday some time ago. Part two of the now two-shot. I hope you enjoy :)

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><p>"This is a bad idea."<p>

"I don't care anymore."

Shinpi was in the trees of the park close to her home. The park she'd been found in with Kin. The park this war had started in. The sky was darkening, black clouds overtaking the sky and blotting out the silver light of the half full moon. Her red short cut hair grew ruffled by the wind.

"It's going to rain." The man at her side tugged on her shirt. "We must go! They'll figure it out."  
>"I said I don't care." She closed her eyes and the heavens opened up. The whiny, worrisome man stared up at the sky in awe of the sudden torrent of rain. His hand slipped from her shirt.<p>

"You can do this?" he asked, his whisper nearly lost in the rain.

"You have a lot to learn."

The storm was a lot stronger than she'd pulled on before. But she had a lot pent up. Sitting under the trees in the rain, so close but a world away. She could see her house from where she stood. After a few close strikes of lightning, the lights flickered and went out. She waited.

"We should go." The man told her again.

"Stay here."

She walked through the wet grass and mud slowly, one step after the other like weight was being added to her body. She felt sick suddenly. She missed them so much.

Just one look wouldn't hurt.

When she got around to the back of the house, intent on climbing the tree to look into the bedroom window, she had second thoughts. What if this brought everything down on her house? What if the SDF was watching right now, waiting for her to make the wrong move? She could be exposing Hiei, and worse, Kin to something they had no part in.

She almost stopped. Almost turned and went back and listened to herself. But movement in the living room window made her turn.

Hiei was adjusting the way he slept so that Kin was comfortable. She stared. The fire demon was cuddling the boy on the couch, and Kin looked like he could use the comfort. She put her hand up on the glass as her heart swelled. Everything she had wanted was sitting on her couch and she couldn't even be there to enjoy it.

"I miss you." She whispered as thunder clapped. The sound apparently woke the light sleeping boys as a blue eye and a crimson eye both groggily opened. Her eyes widened and she was gone.

She didn't stop moving until she hit the trees of the woods and found the man who had for once listened and stayed put. Her heart was pounding with fear, something that had not happened in a while.

"Was it worth it?" he asked bitterly. "Attempting to expose yourself for what?"

Her hand shot out and grasped his throat until his eyes bulged and he sank to his needs.

"The only reason you're here. The only reason I'm out there trying to pull this off is so the two men in that house come through all of this unscathed. Do you understand me? They are everything essential. And I will kill you for questioning that ever again."

She dropped him and turned to glance back at the house. For a few seconds she was worried they'd come out of the house. When the front door didn't open she breathed easier, hoping they'd think it was a dream. A mirage in the wind.

"We can go now." She started to walk away, and the man followed still gasping for air.

Hiei stared at the glass, and Kin was staring with wide eyes.

"Hiei!" he gasped.

"Hush." The man told him sternly as he slipped from the boy. Kin sat on his knees and stared out the window where she'd been. He'd seen her, he knew it.

"It must've been a dream." Hiei muttered, opening the back door and leaning out to smell the air. All the rain was overpowering her scent if she'd been there. He came back in and shook the rain from his hair.

"Look." Kin point to the glass as lightning struck again and revealed a cloudy handprint. He lifted his hand and pressed it against the glass on the other side of the print. "She was here, Hiei. She was looking over us."

"Hn." Hiei's heart rose and sank uncomfortably fast. She'd been so close. Close enough to touch. He placed his hand over Kin's on the print. He imagined it was still warm from her skin.

"We should go find her!" Kin went to rise but Hiei placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"She'll come to us when she thinks she can, Kin." He shook his head. "Come on, we need to get back to sleep."


End file.
